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American Morning

Columbia, South Carolina Shut Down By 2 Inches of Snow

Aired January 03, 2002 - 08:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty-four minutes after the hour now, and we've been talking about this all morning long now, a winter wonderland in most parts of the southeast this morning.

And our Sean Callebs is out up to his ankles in snow here. He's in Columbia, South Carolina. How is it out there Sean?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Leon, it's about what you'd expect in the south. It doesn't take a whole lot to shut down a city like this and that's exactly what's happened here. We're told that here in South Carolina the governor has already called in the National Guard to get some assistance because if you can see, the roads are still white -- they're still covered with ice; they're still covered with snow.

Also it's a holiday basically for 64,000 state workers. They've been told they don't have to show up for work as well. So folks in Buffalo who have been dealing with what 80 inches of snow for the past 10 days to two weeks, they look at this and think how do they do this. But the bottom line is if you don't get out and drive and deal with this kind of weather when it does come, it becomes somewhat of a crisis.

Just look down at the ground, we can give you a pretty good micro (ph) cause of what we're dealing with. The snow, the sleet that came last night has frozen, so it's just about an inch solid of ice out here on the streets. So the few snow plows; the few salt trucks that Columbia does have are out there doing what they can.

Now this is one of the main thoroughfares in Columbia and basically only a handful of cars going up and down. It's really turned into somewhat of a ghost town, and you can see right now, the snow is still spinning; still coming down. What we're told, the storm is really pounding the Charlotte, the Raleigh area with eight inches of snow, 10 inches of snow -- is now that could be pushing down toward this way.

So while there's only about an inch and a half, two inches of snow here now, and that has shut the city down, if they get more, as they head into the weekend, it could become a much more difficult situation. But basically most people that we've talked to say they're just going to stay in; they're just going to ride this out; and wait for nature to do her part, when temperatures get about 32 degrees and then all of this snow will begin to melt away. That's the very latest from Columbia. Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks Sean. That's the first evidence we've seen of any ice out there on the road. You guys be careful. We'll check back with you later on.

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